Medical Physics Seminar – Monday, November 24, 2014
Antimatter & Antibodies: PET Imaging of Receptor Expression in Oncology
Suzanne E. Lapi, PhD (guest of Dr. Weibo Cai)
Assistant Professor, Department of Radiology, Washington University, St. Louis, MO - USA -
The use of monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) as molecular targets for tumor cells is a very rapidly expanding pharmaceutical area and 89Zr (t1/2 = 3.3 d) is ideally matched to image the biodistribution of intact antibodies (immunoPET). MAbs are produced for selective targeting of tumor cells and intended for use as therapeutics, either alone or conjugated to additional therapeutic drugs. Thus, immuno-PET is an attractive non-invasive tool for patient screening, assessing target expression, antibody accumulation in tumor lesions and normal tissues and in vivo mAb characterization. The success of preclinical results has facilitated in-human investigations of 89Zr labeled antibodies. As an example, in addition to other imaging projects, our group has focused on the use of radiolabeled Trastuzumab and Pertuzumab for imaging of HER2 expression in preclinical models and more recently, in a clinical trial. Recent results from this work will be presented.